Terrorist Tactics Are Continually Evolving

¶ … terrorist tactics are continually evolving and changing. This is troubling, as these kinds of shifts make it more difficult to target someone who may be carrying a WMD. Moreover, most of these organizations are looking for individuals who can blend within the general population. This allows them to conduct different activities without being detected by law enforcement or intelligence officials.

A good example of this can be seen with Faisal Shahzad. On May 1, 2010; he parked an SUV filled with explosives in the middle of Times Square and attempted to detonate it. The primary objectives were to kill as many people as possible and bring the fight to the streets of America.

What makes this situation so troubling is he is a naturalized American citizen. This is problematic, as law enforcement had no idea that an attack was about to occur. Prior to these events, he was considered to be an ordinary person who worked as an account analyst (making a salary of $50 thousand a year). He lived in the suburbs of Connecticut and was known for mowing the lawn on the weekends and playing with his family outside.

What pushed him to become radicalized are the financial challenges he was facing in the wake of the recession and stagnant recovery. This is because his home was foreclosed on. These actions are the result of him no longer being able to afford the payments and he was seeing declining levels of income in the tough economic conditions. This is point that he felt, the U.S. was being manipulated by the Jews (who controlled the financial system). As time went by, these views became more fundamentalist with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He believed that this was an indirect approach for the Jews (i.e. Israel) to dominate the Middle East. This is being accomplished by using the War on Terrorism to push the U.S. To become more involved in the region militarily.

Furthermore, law enforcement was not able arrest Shahzad until two days later. This is when they had to pull him off of an airplane at JFK (which was about to take off for Yemen). What gave them the clues they needed to apprehend Shahzad, is he left the keys to his apartment and identification in the vehicle. This told investigators who was involved and it provided them with critical leads that lead directly to the perpetrator. These events are illustrating possible gaps in the research. This is because the methods of the terrorists are becoming more sophisticated. One of the most notable is the use of the disgruntled lone wolf to conduct these attacks.